He pointed at the flower girl who was sitting on the floor with her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands.
“She looks nice enough.”
Tyler shrugged. “I guess.”
“Did you have fun with her at day care?”
“Yeah,” Tyler said. He frowned, like he expected Elliot to trick him somehow.
“Well, this isn’t that much different from playing. You get to dance to some awesome music. You just have to do it standing next to her.”
“Oh. Well, that doesn’t sound too bad, I guess.”
“Why don’t you go over there and say hi? I bet she’ll be happy to see another kid here. She’ll be more fun to hang around with than all us boring adults.”
“You aren’t boring,” he said, grinning up at Elliot. “Can we go play video games again in your room?”
“No,” Lena said. “We talked about this, Tyler. We’re supposed to do our dance lessons right now. We can do something fun later.”
Tyler sighed. “Okay. Can Elliot do something fun with us?”
“I’d love to,” Elliot cut in, before Lena could say no again.
“We’ll see,” she said.
“That means no,” Tyler whispered to him.
Elliot ruffled his hair. “I’ll see what I can do to change her mind. Go on over and get your dance partner. I think lessons are about to start.”
Tyler let go of his mom’s hand. “Okay.”
He ran off without looking back, and Elliot stood up, his full attention on Lena now that Tyler was happily settled with his friend.
“Hello there,” he said, his voice deep and low, not much louder than a whisper.
“Hi.” She was still looking somewhere around the vicinity of his throat.
“I wasn’t sure you were going to come. You’ve been avoiding me.”
Her gaze finally met his. “No, I haven’t.”
He raised his eyebrows, amused.
She blushed. “Okay, maybe I have. I just… I wasn’t sure… I mean after what happened…”
Elliot stepped a little closer, reaching out so he could run his hands down her arms. “You mean when I kissed you?”
She shivered, her skin erupting in goose bumps, though he knew she couldn’t possibly be cold. The hotel was air-conditioned, but with so many open walls the steamy heat that lay just beyond the cool barriers of the indoors always trickled into the interior.
“Yes,” she murmured, moving her gaze back to his throat.
He gently raised her chin so he could meet her eyes again. “Do you regret kissing me?”
She looked at him a moment before answering. “No,” she said, that gorgeous blush staining her cheeks again.
Happiness streaked through Elliot so strongly he wanted to laugh with the sheer joy of it.
He leaned forward so he could whisper into her ear. “Do you have any idea how badly I want to taste that sweet mouth of yours again? Right now?” He kissed the soft skin beneath her ear, and she shivered again, leaning into him, turning her face so their cheeks brushed together.
She stepped back before their lips met and opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, Oz loomed up next to him. His stony gaze fixed on Elliot’s hands touching his sister. Elliot dropped his hand from her cheek but dragged the other down her arm to take her hand in his.
“Everything okay?” Oz asked her.
“Yep, fine.” Lena’s voice was faint but steady. Her hand gripped his tighter.
Elliot nodded. “Everything’s fine.” He pulled on her hand, leading her onto the dance floor. “Looks like it’s lesson time.”
Oz looked like he wanted to say something, but Cher came over and wrapped her arms around his waist. Oz looked down at her and the frown immediately smoothed away, replaced by such a tender, loving smile that Elliot’s heart almost hurt. Happiness for his sister filled him, and for the first time he wondered what it would be like to have someone staring up at him with such incredible love shining from her face. He’d avoided that scenario like the plague his whole life. Or maybe he’d thought he was avoiding it, but had never found someone who he wanted to look at him like that.
“They look happy, don’t they?” Lena said.
Elliot’s face softened. “Yes, they do.”
“I was worried at first. They’re so different. From two different worlds.”
Elliot looked down at her, concerned at her tone. What was she getting at? “Yeah, I suppose.”
She gazed up into his eyes. “They seem to be making it work.”
“Yes, they are.” A glimmer of hope and unease flickered through him again. Part of him wanted very much to see how things would play out between them. But the part that knew he had no business trying to be any sort of a father figure to a child made a small, hard knot twist in his gut.
Before either one could say anything else, the dance mistress clapped her hands and started barking instructions at them. She went from couple to couple, making sure everyone’s hands were placed correctly. Elliot pulled Lena into his arms, one hand cradling hers, the other low on her back, but not so low that she’d find it inappropriate.
Truthfully, the temptation to run his hand down her back, following her lines over her hips so he could caress the amazing swell of her backside, was so strong he almost had to clench his hand to keep from doing it. But he didn’t want to screw this up with her, and grabbing her ass like some kind of horny teenager would definitely not make the impression he was going for.
The instructor turned on the music, and the strains of a classical waltz filled the room. She started counting out the steps, and Elliot tightened his hold on Lena, leading her through the dance.
Childish laughter peeled out, and he looked over to see Tyler, his little hands holding Abby in an imitation of the grown-ups, leading her through the dance. They kept tripping over each other’s toes and spinning around far too quickly. But they seemed to be having a great time.
Elliot laughed. “They’re actually doing a pretty good job.”
“Yeah, I’m kind of impressed.”
He pulled her in a little closer. Her expression was wary, but she didn’t protest.
“I’ve been thinking about you,” he said.
“You have?”
He let his lips slowly stretch into a smile while he stared into her eyes. Then his face softened, changing his demeanor from sex stud to casual conversationalist.
“You know, that bug bite stuff worked great. I’ve been thinking about some marketing ideas. I bet you could make a fortune selling that stuff.”
She blinked up at him, confused at the sudden change in conversation. “You’ve been thinking about the bite balm?”
“Yes. Why haven’t you ever tried selling that? It works amazing.”
She tried to pull out of his grip so she wasn’t pressed so close to him, but he didn’t let her.
“I’m enjoying dancing with you. Very much,” he said, pushing his hips against hers so she could feel exactly how happy he was to be there. “And we are going to finish this conversation later on, I promise you that. But since I can’t do what I really want to do to you right here on the dance floor, it might be better to stick to a safer subject.”
Her breath audibly hitched in her throat, her eyes full of the same smoldering desire as his. Fuck. What he wouldn’t give to be alone with her in his suite. But that was going to have to wait, so he needed to get them back onto safer ground.
He let his hand slide a little lower so it grazed her hip, loving the catch in her breath at his touch. But he did need to get them back into safer territory. For the moment.
“So, bug balm?”
She broke their gaze and nodded. “Right. Yeah. I have thought about selling it. Even looked into what that would entail. But I just couldn’t see a way to produce enough of it that I’d actually turn a good profit.”
“Well, that’s what I’ve been thinking about. You could start off small, like selling at local fairs. And you could set up a website. It wouldn’t have to be anything fancy, and there are lots of places where you can get cheap domain names and web design templates or software.”